The actor denied a bigger role in ‘Saving Private Ryan’ by Disney: “They wouldn’t let me out”
In the long list of great Steven Spielberg movies, few have had quite the same impact as Saving Private Ryan. The story of a group of US soldiers attempting to rescue a missing comrade in the midst of the final full year of World War II captured (and broke) hearts of millions around the world. It is widely regarded as one of the best war films, and indeed one of the greatest films ever made, and helped spark a renewed interest in the subject of the Second World War.
The film features a stacked cast. Tom Hanks leads the charge as Captain John Miller, head of the battalion sent to find the missing Private, himself played by a young Matt Damon. Edward Burns, Vin Diesel, Giovani Ribisi, Ted Danson, Paul Giamati, and Bryan Cranston fill out roles big and small across the film, with another future star making a very brief cameo.
Andrew Scott appears for a split-second during the film’s iconic opening scene, which takes place during the D-Day landings. He plays an unnamed, unremarkable soldier taking part in the historic invasion of Normandy. However, as he revealed to Vanity Fair, this wasn’t the original plan.
“I got cast in this, five or six lines [part], this guy who was about to lose his life,” Scott said, explaining that the movie was actually shot in the south of his home country of Ireland. “I was filming a Disney film at the time called Miracle at Midnight, and they wouldn’t let me out to be in this Spielberg movie. I was absolutely devastated that I couldn’t do this film. And so they ended up giving me this much, much smaller part where Tom Hanks basically rolled over me, and I just [muffles voice] ‘I’m so sorry about that!’ And the completely indistinguishable line that I had.”
Miracle at Midnight, which was produced by Disney for ABC, also has a World War II theme; it’s set around the mass evacuation of Jews from Denmark during the Holocaust. Scott had a very minor part in the TV movie, which stars Sam Waterston and Mia Farrow, and it’s safe to say that, had he been given the choice, he would have most certainly chosen to work for Spielberg instead. The actor was in his early 20s at the time, at the very start of his career, so who knows what a more prominent role in a huge production would have done for him.
Ultimately, Scott’s career turned out just fine. These days, he’s best known for his roles on TV shows like Sherlock and Fleabag, as well as movies like All of Us Strangers, 1917, and the James Bond outing Spectre. Even though his part had been severely reduced, he was still taken aback by the chance to work with such a visionary director. “It was still an extraordinary experience just to be on this extraordinary, long stretch of beach,” he said, recalling how Spielberg managed to change the weather from sunny to overcast using smoke, evoking the ominous dustiness of a real battlefield.
Actors miss out on big jobs all the time, often through no fault of their own. Scott was able to brush this unfortunate experience off, and although he might have only got one garbled line, he still has a credit in a legendary piece of cinema.
